


Her Handsome Hero

by Paige_Turner36



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 5x17 Fix-It, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anti-Gaston, Anti-Her Handsome Hero book, Anti-Heroes, Anti-Hook, Anti-Scarlet Beauty, Baelfire lives, Episode AU: s05e17 Her Handsome Hero, F/M, Fiery Cave, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hook stays dead, No more Zelena, Olympus/Heaven, Permanent character death(s), Robin Hood Lives, Romance, Rumple is smart about the dagger’s safety, Slightly Anti-Belle, Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), Swanfire endgame, True Love, True Love's Kiss, Underbrooke (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 06:07:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20830634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paige_Turner36/pseuds/Paige_Turner36
Summary: 5x17 Fix-It. What if Belle failed to steal the dagger?





	Her Handsome Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Jiminy Cricket: Giving in to one's dark side never accomplishes anything.
> 
> Prince Charming: And how many wars has a clear conscience won? 
> 
> Quote from Doctor Who spin off Class S01E08
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT. This is for fun and not for profit.

‘I just want to tell you I – I have always known who you really are,’ said Belle, her eyes shining with such love that Rumple’s heart missed a beat. ‘And that’s why I love you.’

Belle pulled him into a kiss. Gaston, still hovering in a magical choke hold by Rumple, watched his beauty kissing the beast, sickened, and struggled in vain to free himself so that he could end him. Rumple kissed his wife, his eyes closed, revelling in her acceptance of him. So when Belle pulled away, he leaned in, not wanting the kiss to end. Wanting to vanish inside it.

Belle gasped as a shimmer of gold magic washed over her, immobilising her. They were both panting. Rumple looked down and saw Belle’s right hand was delved into his jacket, near his breast pocket. His heart dropped faster than it had just soared, even his hair seemed to wilt with disappointment, with heartbreak, with betrayal.

Rumple took a step back from Belle and saw that her frozen hand was curled, as if trying to grab hold of something. The dagger.

Her declaration of love, the kiss, it was all a ploy to get her hands on the knife. She had used his love for her as a weapon. Manipulation, trying to justify her actions, including using dark magic. Perhaps the Darkness had chosen wrong. Maybe it shouldn’t have gone for Regina or Emma. Maybe it should have chosen Belle.

Rumple had felt guilty about the dagger switch right up until the moment Belle had attempted to force him to take her to the Snow Queen. The dagger may not have been real, but her intent had been. Intent is everything. He should be angry at this betrayal, but all he felt was sad. He should hate her, but he loved her. And that was the saddest part.

‘I’m sorry, Belle,’ said Rumple, taking out the dagger with his free hand. ‘No one decides my fate but me.’

With a wave of the knife Belle was unfrozen. After a year of being enslaved by Zelena and being enslaved by his own wife, he wasn’t going to allow anyone to control him ever again. taking a leaf out of his ex-captor’s book he had placed a protection spell on the knife, stopping anyone trying to steal it from him. no one could touch it without his consent.

He may never ever separate himself from the cursed blade, but for too long he had not been the master of his fate. No more.

‘Rumple –’ Belle began.

‘Don’t,’ said Rumple. He didn’t want to hear her say she was sorry, when he knew she was only sorry she got caught. If nothing could justify him trying to crush Hook’s heart, then nothing can justify Belle trying to take his freewill.

‘I just wanted you to remember who you really are,’ Belle pleaded.

‘You just wanted the knife.’

‘I’m trying to save our baby –’

‘No. You’re trying to be the hero. If you believe power is my true love, well, I believe your true love is your hero complex. That _was_ the reason you came with me in the first place. “Heroism… sacrifice”. It was heroism that made you come back to me, not true love. You weren’t going to come back, if I recall, but then the Evil Queen fed you some flights of fancy and planted the hero seed in your head changed your mind. You chose heroism over me at the town line. You would rather be the hero who killed the beast then try to save me. Now you believe that saving your ogre-child-torturing _ex_-fiancé “who I didn’t really care much for” is going to save our baby? The terms of your deal with Hades are clear: Either me or Gaston must end up in the river by our hand. This is not about good or evil, it’s about saving our child.’

‘Not like this. There are other ways –’

‘There are no other ways!’ Rumple shouted. ‘We tried other ways and they keep coming back! We tried other ways and people die! How am I the only one who see this? Do you think I haven’t seen the same things as you? I am over three hundred years old, Belle, and I know that life is not a fairytale! You can be good all your life and still end up with nothing. Others can be bad and still get everything without deserving anything. And no matter which side I’m on, I still lose.

‘You know, back in the day Regina would have burned an entire village who’d harboured her nemesis Snow White to the ground just to see the pretty shapes in the smoke. I would have turned a man who almost ran over my son into a snail and stepped on him just because Baelfire cut his knee. I’m sorry there’s no miraculous plot twist where nobody dies today. But like it or not I’ve just saved our child because this _is_ the only way. Your version of “good” is not absolute: it’s vain, arrogant and sentimental. And right now, it’s selfish. Because of your moral code, because you don’t want blood on your hands, you’re jeopardising the only way to break the contract. The contract I made before I even knew you. Before you were even born. A deal I made on a hypothetical child I thought I would never have to save my dying son. You witnessed it yourself: Gaston will kill me if he has the chance…’

Or maybe it was better? Belle was so desperate to save her fiancé. She was lost to him the second she realised he was no longer the pure hearted hero she left behind. Maybe Belle and the baby were better off without him.

Rumple swallowed the lump in his throat. ‘Would you rather that? Kill two birds with one stone: kill a beast, free a soul, and our baby? You’d rather I die instead?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Belle.

‘Really?’

‘Yes!’ said Belle, shocked that he should even ask that. ‘How can you even think I would want to condemn my husband to…’ She glanced at the treacherous waters, the tormented souls flashing across its surface.

‘You were happy to condemn your husband to banishment with nothing but the clothes on his back; homeless, alone and afraid, and dying, cut off from the people he loved, while you moved on with another man – a _married_ man. Tell me, when I was lying in a hospital bed, where else did you kiss your scrappy thief when you weren’t thrashing like a pair of eagles in my own shop? In my car? The wishing well where we were married? The library I gave you? Our booth at Granny’s? Over my sons grave? In our bed?’

‘You have no right to ask me that! It’s not like you’ve never –’

‘No. Never. Not when I thought you were dead and Regina suggested I get a new girl. Not even when Cruella de Vil said you never even mentioned my name and told me to move on.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because you’re Belle. You’re as good as it gets. Because true love can never be replaced.’

Belle had the grace to look ashamed that she had tried to do just that. ‘No…’ Belle agreed. ‘How can you think I wouldn’t care if you ended up in the river?’

‘Because the second you found out I was the Dark One, you wanted nothing to do with me, except out of necessity.’

‘You were free,’ Belle insisted. ‘You were a hero. That curse made you miserable – it almost killed you. Why would you take it back?’

‘You left me!’ Rumple yelled. Tears filled his eyes and suddenly her felt like he was back at the well, heartbroken. Belle wasn’t the only one who allowed their optimism to cloud their judgement. ‘Do you have any idea how hard the last six weeks have been? And the six weeks before that? How hard it’s been to cling on to life? To my humanity? It would have been so easy to just give in! To take the easy way out. But I didn’t. I fought against it for _you_! For when you came back! I wanted to die… I wanted it to end… But you made me change my mind. You made me think that you still loved me.’

‘Well, I guess that makes you ugly _and_ stupid,’ growled Gaston.

‘Shut up!’ Rumple and Belle shouted at him. They looked back at each other.

‘I became a hero for you. I became the best version of myself, someone that you could be proud of. And then you show up just to tell me I was surplus to requirements and you made me feel like nothing, Belle, I was _nothing_. You told me it wasn’t too late. But you lied.’

‘No.’ Belle shook her head.

‘I told you not to come to the well if you didn’t want to be with me.’

‘I had to know if you were okay. I just needed time.’

‘You needed to protect your heart, you said. Protect it from me. What about me heart, Belle? You may as well have ripped it out of my chest and crushed it in front of me. You were gone. So yes, I saw an opportunity not to return to this infernal place and I took it. I love you, Belle, but you can really be a child sometimes. You think if you put a toy down it’ll still be there when you want to play with it again. Well, I’m done being played with. I’m done with you thinking just because you’re a hero that means you’re better than me. That you’re incapable of compromise and believing your way is the only way. It feels like you’re waiting for your Handsome Hero to emerge from the pages of your book, who is so… _perfect_, just the way he is, that you don’t need to fix him.’

‘Rumple, this is mad.’

‘And perhaps you thought you found him. You wanted the hero, but instead you got latched to the evil sorcerer. Do you _want_ to be married to me?’

‘I…’ Belle faltered.

Rumple sighed. Belle's silence spoke volumes. ‘You see, when it gets hard, when it matters, when I need you most, you can never muster the strength… to fight for us. For me… because I’m not worth fighting for.

‘Ask me.’

‘What?’

‘Ask me. No threats, no ultimatums, no false promises, no daggers. Ask me to spare your fiancé.’

‘Who am I to stop you?’

‘The only one who can.’

Belle searched his eyes, no doubt searching for deception. But she saw none. ‘Please, Rumple. Release Gaston.’

‘You’re sure you thought through the ramifications?’

‘Yes.’

Rumple nodded. ‘Who am I to stand in the way of true love?’

Rumple released Gaston, who dropped to the ground, choking. Belle ran to his side.

‘Are you all right?’ Belle asked, checking if Gaston was okay.

Rumple turned and walked away.

‘I’ll help you move on. There has to be a way.’

‘That’s your problem, Belle,’ said Gaston, eyes on Rumple’s back. ‘You’re so naïve. You see the good in everyone even when it’s not there. You’re living a fantasy. I will move on… once I _kill the beast_!’

‘Gaston –’

Gaston pushed Belle roughly to the ground and aimed an arrow at Rumple.

‘NO!’

Belle ran to stop him. Rumple, without looking back, closing his eyes, flung his hand back, magically propelling Gaston backwards into the river. Cold with dread, Rumple turned back to Belle. She was staring into the water where Gaston had vanished. He approached her cautiously.

‘In the end he wouldn’t let go of his quest for revenge,’ said Belle, hearing his approach. ‘You were right. Darkness will always win.’ Rumple touched her shoulder. She turned to face him, tear tracks on her face. ‘I could’ve lost you…’

Belle all but collapsed against him and Rumple held her close. ‘I’m so sorry, Belle. You tried. You gave him every chance. He didn’t want to listen. You can only help someone who actually wants to be helped. Some people just can't let go of the past. Some people just can’t move on.'

Belle sighed sadly. 

'It wasn’t your fault, Belle.’

Belle sniffed. ‘Yeah, I know,’ she mumbled.

‘No, you don’t.’ Rumple pulled away so that Belle could look at him. ‘Once you start blaming yourself for deaths that are not your fault, that is a slippery slope that you can never come back from. And I’ve seen it ruin many great heroes. And I will not let it happen to you. You didn’t kill Gaston, I did. Twice. I didn’t want you to be put in that position. Your soul is not as damaged as mine.’

Belle realised what he was saying. ‘You darkened yourself so I wouldn’t have to.’

‘I’m your husband. And a father. And that means, to hell with what happens to me.’

Belle didn’t know what to say.

‘Well, that was disappointing.’ Hades had arrived.

Rumple and Belle turned to face him, arms to wrapped around the others waist.

‘Did things not go according to your plan?’ asked Rumple. ‘Trying to get Belle to push Gaston into the sea to save me?’

‘What?’ said Belle, looking from Hades twisting his mouth to Rumple’s glaring face.

Rumple rubbed her back soothingly. ‘He wanted you to break your deal, Belle. Either me or Gaston had to push the other in. Your interference would have nulled the agreement. It would have darkened your soul and drive a deeper wedge between us.’ He addressed Hades, ‘You got what you wanted. Gaston is damned for all eternity.’

Hades shrugged. ‘Dead or alive: he really wasn’t very interesting.’

‘Then by the terms of your deal with my wife, you have to destroy the contract. You can’t cheat on this one.’

Hades sighed. He produced the contract and tore it in half before their eyes and threw the useless pieces of paper away.

‘So that’s it?’ said Belle. ‘Our baby…’

‘Is yours. You win.’

‘And now,’ said Rumple, ‘you are going to open a portal to send Belle home – _safely_ – to Storybrooke.’

‘Because I’ll do it out of the evilness of my heart?’ said Hades.

‘No. Because it will heal your bruised ego my twisting the knife into me even more. I didn’t win. I lost. Belle wanted to save Gaston and I condemned him to a fate worse than purgatory. I have fulfilled my usefulness. The contract is destroyed. Now there’s nothing keeping her here. So you will send her back home. And I will remain here.’

Hades opened a swirling red portal.

‘I want to see where this portal lets out,’ said Rumple warningly.

Hades rolled his eyes. The portal revealed Granny’s diner, with Granny herself and the dwarves, including Leroy, staring into it. ‘Belle?’ said Leroy.

‘Have a safe trip,’ Rumple muttered.

Belle turned to see Rumple walking away from the portal in the opposite direction. ‘Hey. Wait a minute.’ Belle ran to stand in front of Rumple, stopping his progress. ‘Wait! Where are you going?’

‘Pan’s here, Belle,’ Rumple explained. ‘He’s hell bent on returning to the land of the living. All he needs is a living heart. If I don’t stop him there’ll be on less member of our group returning.’

Belle frowned. ‘You are coming back?’

‘I don’t know. When I’ve dealt with my father, I’m going.’

‘Where?’

‘To be judged.’

‘You’re not dead.’

‘But I did die.’

‘What will happen to you?’

‘If I have redeemed myself? Ascend to Olympus. If I’m rotten? Dragged to hell with the other monsters, the Dark One with me. Or I’ll be banished to the void between heaven and hell. For I am unfit for neither. If I come home? It’ll be because I’m worth saving… that I’m worthy.’

‘But you don’t believe that?’

Rumple shook his head.

‘I’ll go with you,’ said Belle tearfully. ‘You can’t face this on your own.’

‘We all face the final judgement alone. And you have less to fear than me when your time comes. I need to do this.’

‘But… what about me? What if I need you?’

Rumple smiled sadly. ‘You don’t, Belle. You never have. You’re stronger than Miss Swan and Regina. Your happiness isn’t reliant on a man. You’re not defined by your relationship with me. You don’t need me.’

‘You’re right. I don’t need you.’

Rumple closed his eyes and bowed his head. Then he felt Belle cup his cheek and stroke it with her thumb, forcing his eyes open.

‘But I want you,’ said Belle softly. ‘I’m proud of you, Rumple.’

‘How can you possibly be proud of me?’

‘Because you care when you get it wrong. It matters to you. That takes something special. I love you for that.’

Hades cleared his throat loudly. ‘This portal won’t stay open forever.’

Belle looked at Rumple, wondering if this would be the last time. ‘Tell me I’m going to see you again.’

More than anything in the world Rumple wanted to tell her yes. But he knew what he was and what was waiting for him. he shook his head regretfully. They kissed, trying to put a lot of unsaid things into their possibly last kiss.

‘I love you,’ said Rumple.

‘I love you,’ echoed Belle.

They leaned against each other in a forehead kiss.

‘For all those times I let you down, I’m sorry,’ said Rumple.

‘As am I.’

Rumple pressed a hand to her stomach and Belle covered it with her own. ‘Goodbye, little one. Take care of your mama for me, okay? Your papa loves you so much.’

Belle tried and failed to hold back a sob as they hugged.

‘Go on,’ Rumple urged her gently. ‘Hell isn’t ready for you yet.’

Belle half sobbed, half laughed, reluctantly pulling away. She stepped through the portal and was greeted by her friends. They would look after her when he was gone. Belle barely had time to turn back for one last look before the portal shut with a snap.

‘You really believe she’ll be waiting for you?’ said Hades snidely. ‘I bet she’ll already be making ready to run off with your unborn child.’

‘They’re safe,’ said Rumple, staring at the spot where Belle had been. ‘That’s all that matters.’

*

It was very quick.

While the other heroes were running around trying to save the pirate that had tried to send them all here in the first place to punish his supposed true love, Rumple went to see his father. He told him Belle had left, allowing Pan to believe that Belle had abandoned him for good and telling him he had reconsidered his offer for them to start again. Rumple took Robin Hood’s heart. And while he made the outlaw forget what he had done, Rumple didn’t use Regina’s lover as a pawn to inflict pain. Regina took Belle’s heart, Rumple took Robin’s – they were even. It was necessary in case Pan’s shadow was watching him for signs of deception. It was Rumple after all who killed him.

It seemed to work. Rumple had discreetly returned Robin’s heart so that no one would ever know what he’d done (nor that he had just saved them _again_) and thrust the wineskin filled with water from the Acheron, and glamoured to look like a heart, into Pan’s chest. He watched his father dissolve into greenish mist and disappear.

‘Goodbye papa. For good this time.’

He transported himself to the Fiery Cave. This was it. If he was worthy to be a husband to Belle, a father to his second born child, this test would tell him. Either he’ll be dragged to the Worse Place, ascend to Olympus, return to his loved ones or end up somewhere worse.

He stepped on to the bridge, the fiery pit raging below.

One step. Two steps. Three steps –

The flames rose up and consumed Rumple in a spiral of fire. He felt it burning his flesh away, leaving the scales of the Dark One behind. Unredeemable, that was what he was. No monster as beastly as him was ever meant for heavens light.

‘I’m sorry, my love,’ whimpered Rumple, closing his eyes as he waited for him to get what he deserved.

Six feet above him in Storybrooke, Belle who was laying flowers on Neal’s grave doubled over and clutched her chest, feeling as if her heart was on fire.

_I’m sorry, my love… I’m sorry, my love… I’m sorry, my love…_

That was Rumple’s voice. It was coming from her heart. He was saying goodbye. He sounded so defeated, so without hope. Like he had let her down.

‘Rumple…’ Belle whispered. She closed her eyes, allowing the fire in her heart, the pain her true love was feeling, to spread. ‘You never let me down. You always keep yours promises. You promised you’d come back to me. Please. Please don’t leave me. Come back to us. Come back to me.’

She opened her eyes. There was fire everywhere, swirling around her. Through it she saw Rumple. He looked like he did once in her dream; scales, curly hair and claws, wearing Mr Gold’s suit, the flames burning away the last of his human flash. But whilst dream-Rumple had Dark One bloodlust, the Rumple standing in front of her had tear streaks on his weathered cheek, his eyes were closed, like he was waiting to turn to ashes for his sins. Rumple wasn’t perfect, but he never pretended to somebody he wasn’t. Regina and Hook tried to blame their actions on others, including why they became villains, tried to justify it all, but not Rumple. He didn’t even blame it on his curse. He knew the wrongs he had done, the mistakes he had made. But the worst of it was, he couldn’t see the good he had done too. Like he had weighed them up against the bad ones and decided he was worthless. And the hellfire only confirmed that belief.

Everyone hated him. But there was only one person who hated Rumplestiltskin more than anyone. Rumplestiltskin.

Except one…

Rumple sensed her before he saw, by the respite of the infernal heat. He saw Belle emerge through the wall of fire, dressed in a white version of her wedding dress, glowing with an inner ethereal light. His angel of light. Belle reached up and kissed him. Beginning at his lips, the scales turned to skin, spreading out until Rumple not only looked human again but shared in Belle’s heavenly light. Her kiss granting him absolution.

The spiral of fire withered away, leaving them as two torches in the dark cave. As Belle pulled away, Rumple heard her voice echo, ‘I love you, Rumple. Come back to me…’

Rumple saw Belle smile at him as she faded into a blinding white light. Then he saw the light was coming from the other side of the bridge. Rumple took a breath and stepped across it into the light.

He had no idea who he expected to meet there: Saint Peter? Zeus? God? There was only one person he wanted to see. The person he had wanted to see the second he had been dragged to the Underworld. And there he was, dressed in the clothes he had been wearing when his father had absorbed him in a desperate attempt to keep him alive. Waiting for him…

‘Papa,’ said Neal.

‘Bae…’ Rumple breathed, overwhelmed to see his boy.

They embraced like they had been separated for a thousand years.

‘Are you real?’ Rumple asked, unable to stop patting his son’s face.

‘I sure hope so,’ Neal chuckled nervously.

Rumple laughed wetly, but then sobered up. ‘I’m sorry, son. I failed. It all went wrong when I lost you. I broke my promise not to be the man I was before. I dishonoured your sacrifice. I hurt Belle. Endangered your brother or sister. I failed.’

But far from being disappointed in him, Neal smiled. ‘But you kept your promise. You realised your mistake and tried to fix it. That’s enough for me. Your best is enough. I love you.’

‘I love you too, son.’

Neal kissed his father’s forehead. Rumple glowed a blinding white and when it faded he was standing in the peasant’s clothes he had been wearing the night he became the Dark One.

‘Hello papa.’

‘I told you I’ll be back,’ said Rumple.

Neal bent down and picked up his father’s staff, running his thumb along the marks recording his growth and handed it to him.

‘Shall we go?’ said Neal.

‘Where?’

‘Let’s find out.’

They walked together into the light and appeared…

...in Storybrooke cemetery.

Belle was standing there at Neal’s grave changing the flowers. She was wearing different clothes from the last time he saw her. How much time had passed? Seeming to sense their presence, Belle straightened up and turned. She stared at her Stiltskin boys as if they were ghosts.

‘Rumple…’ Belle whispered. ‘Neal…’

Then she hurried towards them and hugged them tight.

‘How are you here?’ Belle asked Rumple. ‘What happened?’

‘It seems fate thought us worth saving,’ said Rumple.

‘You look different.’

‘The Dark One is laid to rest. My love for you and Bae set me free.’

‘And I guess helping defeat the Dark One for good earned me a second chance,’ said Neal. ‘I guess Blue didn’t tell me about true loves kiss because she didn’t think the Dark One was capable of love.’

‘How long was I away?’ asked Rumple. ‘Did everyone make it back?’

Belle nodded. ‘All except Hook. He’d been dead too long. I guess in Emma’s eagerness to get down there it didn’t occur to her to put a preservation spell on his body. Snow came back before everyone to look after baby Neal. They left Zelena in the Underworld. Baby Hood’s safe with her father. All that’s left is to get Merida and the rest of Camelot home.’

‘We did miss a lot,’ said Neal. He saw Emma in the distance laying Hook’s drinking flask on his grave. ‘I’ll leave you two alone. It’s so good to see you, Belle.’

‘You too,’ said Belle smiling.

Neal left them and approached Emma. They watched as Emma looked as if she might faint when she saw the father of her son returned from the dead. But then she was hugging Neal and kissing him all over his face over Hook’s grave.

Rumple and Belle looked at each other.

‘You came back to me,’ said Belle happily.

‘I always do,’ said Rumple. ‘I took the long way home.’

‘What happens now?’

Rumple noticed that Belle was wearing her wedding ring again, playing with it as he always played with his when he was nervous. ‘I do believe I promised you a trip to a magical city called New York.’

‘Our honeymoon.’

‘Let’s not make any promises,’ said Rumple. There was still much more to say and to sort out. But for the first time in a very long time, he had hope. The worst was truly behind them now. ‘Let’s just go to New York for the fun of it and see how things go. It’ll be an adventure.’

‘An adventure…’ Belle smiled. ‘I like the sound of that.’


End file.
